[Jewelry making - Article 00049] - Re: [Orchid] Soldering gold bezels

[David L. Huffman]

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    Your problem of soldering gold to silver or shibuichi is this, I
    believe: 

    Silver and probably shibuichi are much better conductors of heat than
    gold is.  What is happening is that you have a thin piece of gold
    being soldered to a larger piece of silver and the silver is
    conducting the heat away from the solder joint very quickly. 
    Meanwhile, where the torch is hitting the gold, those edges of the
    gold are quickly reaching the saturation of heat necessary to melt
    them because the heat can't get away from those edges fast enough. 
    It's similar to the problem of soldering something small and thin to
    something large and heavy.  What you need to do is concentrate your
    heat on the large piece (or the silver or shibuichi) while keeping
    the torch from directly contacting the gold bezel.  You should be
    able to bring the piece up to a temperature at which the solder
    pallions (chips) should begin to melt without actually having to put
    any heat directly on the bezel.  There should be enough radiant and
    conducted heat then to bring it up to a temperature at which the
    solder will flow through the joint.  Hope this is understandable. 

David L. Huffman 

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